Introducing new birds to the flock

[hannakat]

Maybe it has something to do with age? My flock will be a year old in April. The roos I added are only 6 months old. The person who gave me the Barnevelders told me "you'll never figure out chicken psychology" Boy was she right! Even she was surprised at how smoothly it went.

hannakat, are those all girls you have? My girls fought amongst each other much more before. Now, when an "argument" starts among the girls, a roo will come over and step on one of them- ends the discussion right away. They really took charge of the flock.

Yes, they're all hens..... I had a roo up until last spring. Although he was a great flock rooster, he became too mean to humans. We've thought about getting another but I want a 'guaranteed' nice one !! hahaaaa Wonder if there's such a thing? I was going to get 4 new girls but cut it to 2 just in case I found a roo.

 

[mommissan]

Well, I stewed 5 out of 6 roos that I had. They all were obnoxious, loud and unruly. I kept the nicest one. He doesn't crow and is so sweet. So nice that he won't even mate.

I wanted chicks! Ah well, in the end, this may all be for the better. The new boys eliminate the inbreeding. They are only 6 months old. We'll see how "nice" they'll be..... in a few months..... Good luck finding the perfect roo!

 

[Blessed Chicken]

I want to say please please don't just drop in new birds in to your flock. I have 1 rooster and 3 hens that have grown up together, they are almost 4 months old. I decided I wanted to add 3 more that are 2 months old. I have Americana, RIR, and Sexlink. My rooster is an Americana.

I decided to add a new Americana (2months) and 2 Sexlinks (2 months). The Americana hen and the 2 Sexlinks 2months old grew up together inside just as my other 4 had done just 2 months prier. So I read alot about introducing them but never really got a straight answer on what was the best route to take. So, I built a box covered in chicken wire and put the 3 new ones in the box for 24 Hours. Then I took my rooster out and added him to the 3 new chickens for the day in a big dog cage. After that I put all 4 of the chickens the (3) 2 month old newbies and the already established rooster in the coop at night after the others were asleep and on the roost.

I checked on them the following day only to find the 3 new 2 month old chickens were hiding in the box I put in the coop for safety. So, the following night all was well, it was not until the 2ND day that I came home to a 2 month old chicken that looked nearly dead, every feather on her back was gone. Her face was bloody her entire body was bloody she had pined herself in the corner as tight as she could to hide and almost every wing feather had been broken or plucked out. She is very scared and very injured. I could not even get to her she was under the chicken coop in the run part, It was devastating to send my 10 year old daughter in after her.

She is now inside with her two friends. I have them back in a dog cage and put the divider between them so the injured chicken will still have her friends but not get pecked at. We have washed her with water and peroxide and given her fresh water and food. She will not lay down she is all puffed up with what feathers she has left and is shacking. She is eating and is drinking and pooping. So right now we are just praying she will be OK.

So, please please don't just get new birds and just throw them in. It can and will sooner or later end up really bad and the chickens are the ones that suffer not YOU. So please take it from my experience and do not just throw in new birds even after the 2 or 3 days of introduction that we did it still ended really bad and could get even worse if she dies. But we have high hopes for her because before we even got her home form the hatchery I asked my daughter what we should name her and she said " Miracle " her name is Miracle for a reason.

 

[mommissan]

Blessed Chicken, you are certainly right about that.

I had a pen all set up to introduce new birds, and everything went wrong at the last minute. It was mostly poor planning and inexperience on my part. I got lucky. My flock was nearly a year old already and I was introducing larger males. The girls took a shine to them. I also introduced a new hen. She is just two months younger and had her brothers to hide behind.

I am now introducing new chicks to the flock. This time I had a grow out pen built in their run. It's open air, with a dog house for shelter. I put the new birds in at 4-1/2 weeks old. They could see each other but couldn't get to each other. After a few weeks, I would let the old girls out of the run to free range, and let the new birds into the run. They were now separated by the run fencing. They stayed separated for another week.

Next, they were all allowed to free range together. This gave them the ability to get away from each other. I have small domes for smaller birds to take cover. At night, when it was "bedtime" the old girls marched back into the main coop, while the new birds (now 6 weeks old) marched back into their pen.

At this point, during the day, I opened both the main coop and pen doors in the morning and let them mingle. This worked great. They always had places to hide from each other, though they were getting along pretty well already. To my surprise (and joy) the new chicks (now 9 weeks) snuck into the main coop with the big girls on their own. They slid into the flock unscathed. I could bore everyone with even more details, but I think I've carried on enough....

The grow-out pen inside the run was an absolute must in introducing new birds. It takes a few weeks, a lot space and lots of hiding places to help new birds get accepted. If anyone is going to introduce new birds to an older flock, give them plenty of time to adjust.

 

[brandislee]

This even applies when reintroducing old birds. I have two broody hens right now. One of them left her eggs and started setting in a different spot

, and by the time I noticed the eggs were cold. I was irritated so I put her back in with the flock (she had only been broody about a week) and my gold star hens just went after her, although everyone else left her alone, and my Silkie hen defended her (which was funny, because she won't even defend HERSELF). I had to take her back out and put her back with the other broody. I don't know what I'm going to do when I have to reintroduce them- I'll try doing it at night next time and hope that's all it takes.

 

[ELLY1]

Hi I have two chickens x battery that I have had for a year, I want to get four more but of a different breed SPECKLED SUSSEX,BUFF SUSSEX,SILVER LACED WYANCOTTE AND A RHODE ISLAND RED. How will they get on together, its not going to be possible to put them in different cages, any ideas anyone thanks.

 

[mommissan]

Can you partition your coop and/or run to keep them separated? Maybe tack some chicken wire up? Separation but with full view of each other for about a week has worked every time for me. Breed really doesn't make much difference IMO. They all have their own unique personalities. Of course, almost all my birds are mutts, so I can't offer advice in this area. They are completely unpredictable.

 

[Mrs. K]

I think that the big thing is size, the hens need to be the same size. That helps a great deal, the other thing is that there has to be hidey spots where a hen can get away, a tunnel, as in a large pvc pipe, a picket fence, that smaller birds can get through, larger birds cannot, a box at angles to the corner of the run, out of sight, out of mind. Roosts out in the run or pallets up on cement blocks. All give different levels to the run, actually giving more square feet of area, but looking more crowded.

As to the quarantine issue, it depends on your investment in your flock. You have 100 show birds, you need to take quarantine SERIOUSLY. But probably have the set up to do so, or should. Or if the loss of the flock will put you into a deep depression, many here get sincerely attached to their hens and mourn a death. But if you just have a small flock, just for some eggs and some fun. Then dumping in some birds, is not such a risk, especially if you can visit where they come from.

I, myself, am a bit hard hearted, and I would never have taken chickens from where you first described. The point about them having some deep disease issues is valid, but on the other hand, if they seem well now, and your new birds don't get sick, all are probably over it. If the new birds do get sick, you probably should not ever add to that flock again.

MrsK

 

[Wile E.]

This good info. Right now I have four hens, and i rooster. The rooster is agressive and he is bound for the stewpot.

so I bought some new chicks. I got 4 more Buff Orp pullets, 2 barred rock pullets, and 2 buff orp roosters. Hopefully one of them will be nice. I also bought the last 7 meat birds they had in stock. Might need to get more of those later.


So it sounds like it will be a somewhat complex process getting them all together. The Buff Orp pullets are tiny, and the barred Rocks are several weeks old and have most of their feathers. I had to get them all out of the basement because one barred rock kept jumping out of the box. I stepped on her trying to find her.. She thought she would blend in with a black plastic trash bag and boy did she. I figured I killed her, but she seemed fairly alert this morning so maybe she'll make it.

So anyway, I have these two pullets, which are 4-5 inches tall and feathered out, along with the BO pullets, who were probably a week old when I got them. Then the B O roosters were slightly larger than the pullets. So I have to get the hens to like each other and then get the young roosters in with the older hens.

I guess I was cleaning out the old stock at the store. I couldn't resist getting the barred rocks after the store had put so much feed and time into them. And the roosters were cheap. I wanted to either get a Buff orp rooster or switch to white rocks. They didn't have wihte rocks.

 

[DianaMallory]

Well after coming here and skimming through this thread I decided to go ahead and get 5 more raised pullets and introduce them to my 11 golden comets that are 4 months old now. I thought this would be so easy since they are so young. Big WRONG on my part! I wish I had not waited so long to get 5 more. I have room for 16. When I got home with the new girls as soon as I sat the cage down my girls started going nuts! Squawking very loudly! I blocked them out of the coop and let the new girls loose in the coop to eat and get a drink. The entire time the head hen was at the coop door, trying to get in. After about 10 minutes I removed the block from the coop door. Big MISTAKE! The head hen came in and cornered all 5 new girls and was jumping up and down on them. I caught her threw her out and removed the new girls from the coop. The new girls went to a new home and I have to rethink my next moves. I didn't want to brood anymore chicks but I am thinking that would probably be the only way to do it. I have no Roos and don't want any either. So back to the hatchery!